Britney Spears Drug Allegation Kicked Off Sam Lufti Defamation Trial

Britney Spears may be a major celebrity, but she is also an American citizen, which means she owes taxes. Spears reportedly owes more than $37,000 in taxes, although her reps claim that is an error.

Photo: Reuters

Britney Spears was accused in the opening statements Thursday of Sam Lufti’s defamation case against her parents Lynne and Jaime Spears of using amphetamines (specifically Adderall), TMZ reported.

Just when it seemed like Britney Spears was getting on the right track again, the misdeeds from her past are creeping back up now that the Sam Lutfi case come to trial.

An attorney for Sami Lutfi, Britney’s former manager, is suing her parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears, for libel, E!reported.

Lufti’s lawyer said his client was a concerned friend who "worked very hard to keep Britney Spears off drugs" before she went through her psychiatric episode in 2008, which ended with her father getting a conservatorship over her estate.

Her father then decided to get Lutfi out of the pop star’s life with a restraining order.

"My client was made a scapegoat for the drug abuse and erratic behavior of Britney Spears," Lutfi's lawyer, Joseph Schleimer, said Thursday in his opening statement. "She liked to use amphetamines—speed or uppers. She liked to take that drug. And most of the things that went wrong were related to that drug."

Jamie and Lynn are divorced but sat together during the court proceedings. They took notes during Schleimer's statement and were “huddled” together during breaks in the hall with their attorneys, E! reported.

According to Schleimer, Lutfi met Spears in a nightclub when around "30 or 40" paparazzi would be following her on a typical day. The lawyer said his client would give the paps a heads-up as to where he and Spears were going to establish some kind of order amid the frenzy.

The star met Lufti after she had finished a stint in rehab in 2007, fired her old managers and distanced herself from her parents, the lawyer said.

Schleimer said Lufti told Spears he would work for her if he got 15 percent of her earnings and she promised to abstain from drug use.

He then went on to say that Spears took a huge amount of amphetamines the night she was strapped to a stretcher and placed on a "5150" (involuntary psychiatric treatment) hold, the lawyer said. She reportedly was taking six to eight pills in the morning and several more at night, TMZ reported.

The lawyer said Lufti did not want Spears to perform at the 2007 VMAs but she refused to listen to him.

The lawyer also claimed that Spears shaved all her hair off because she was afraid she would be drug- tested, and that traces of the hard drugs she was taking could be found in her hair.

Spears was afraid of getting her children taking away, so during her famous 2007 meltdown she got rid of all her hair after suffering from paranoia, he said.

Schleimer concluded by saying that his client was never paid and instead was made out to be a monster and a scapegoat when she had her major meltdown on Jan. 28, 2008.

"My client has never been paid for serving as her manager," the lawyer concluded. "He was made famous as the guy who drugged Britney Spears and put her in the hospital. The evidence will show the defendants ruined my client's reputation."

Spears' lawyers will speak on her behalf after Schleimer wraps up on Friday.